"ROME — The head of Italy’s association of defense firms has launched a blistering attack on the U.S. and Lockheed Martin, accusing them of breaking promises made to Italy about workshare on the F-35 program.

Guido Crosetto, the head of Italian aerospace and defense industry association AIAD, said the U.S. “had not honored promises” made since Italy joined the program, hurting Italian firms as well as threatening the livelihood of Italy’s fledgling F-35 maintenance center.

In June 2002, Italy became a Level 2 JSF partner by committing to invest $1 billion in the program’s system development and demonstration stage.

Rome currently plans to buy 90 aircraft. In return, Italy was told its workshare would likely reach around 65 percent of its investment. “Today we are at less than 20 percent,” said Crosetto.

Crosetto, who was a government defense ministry undersecretary between 2008 and 2011, said if Italy falls behind on F-35 workshare, political consequences would follow....

...Work on the two hubs follows on the heels of Italy’s decision to open its own maintenance hub at Cameri in nothern Italy, on the site of the final assembly line where it is turning out F-35s for its own air force.

Italy has to date rolled out six F-35s at Cameri, with the first four flying to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona to take part in pilot training and two deploying in December to its Amendola Air Base — the first Joint Strike Fighters built outside the US to become operational.

In 2014, Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, the F-35 program head, designated Cameri as a center for heavy airframe maintenance, meaning changes or repair to the body of the aircraft, including replacement of a bulkhead or the fixing of a wing.

“Italy was chosen from among many countries as a maintenance hub for all the F-35s flying in Europe, including the US aircraft flying here,” said Italian defense minister Roberta Pinotti at the time, adding that the decision was an “extraordinary result.”

Cameri has been tasked with airframe maintenance, while the UK is touting its North Wales hub as an avionics and components repair center, suggesting UK work will not overlap with work at Cameri.

But Crosetto disagreed, claiming the ramping-up of maintenance work in the UK could damage Cameri and represent a broken promise by the U.S.

“The original idea was to offer all types of maintenance at Cameri, that was the proposal made by the U.S. government and Lockheed Martin to me when I was in office,” he said. “To me the UK and Israel hubs are a violation of that,” he added.

Carlo Festucci, the general-secretary of AIAD, added, “Italy invested in Cameri with the idea it would do everything and was given the idea by Lockheed Martin that it would be the only hub in Europe.”

i'm placing this comment here so I can search my posts years from now and expand on it beyond "Guido and Carlo are FOS" and the following: 1) Italy invested in Cameri to get the FACO facility for 'European finished' F-35s for partners wanting it. They gambled that it would get them a leg up in the Airframe Depot (A Modification and not Repair depot BTW) and it did--even though they had significantly reduced their planned initial aircraft buy shortly before. FACO was a smart investment on their part. As a reminder to myself to expand on it in the far, far future, they almost 'clever'-ed themselves out of the running right at the end. 2) All partners in the F-35 Program, and anyone who would have asked about it at the time were and are aware that the European Airframe Depot selection explicitly excluded Component and Propulsion repair depot work.3) At the end of the day, most of the Partners don't care as much about lowest overall costs nearly as much as getting the most cost incurred in their country. Quite natural, but it's quite hypocritical to deny or ignore same. What we are seeing is the repeat of the early F-16 days with country-specific commercial and government interests trying to maximize their workload participation via politics. They can pound sand as far as I'm concerned. If they are 'best athlete' they'll get the work. Guido's group needs to put their 'big boy' pants on if they want to play.

Cameri is still a good deal for us, just not as lucrative as the chiefs of Gruppo Leonardo expected.

Next time, they are better off backing themselves up with some solid pieces of paper before committing so lany resources and efforts.C'mon now, "vocal agreements" with britz, israelis and LM !? That's a rookie mistake.

Aeronamic: Power & Thermal Management System sustainment (The PTMS is an ultra-power-dense on-board system that manages main engine start, (emergency) power generation, cabin pressurization and cooling)

"As part of all F-35 delivery operations, government pilots fly two acceptance flights to implement all required performance checks. Recently, the combined Japan Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) team of Mitsubishi HeavyIndustries (MHI), Lockheed Martin, DCMA and the Japan Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) successfully completed both government flights in less than a seven-hour period.

Both flights, for F-35 aircraft AX-8, landed Code 1 after the pilot completed all of the required checks, as one of the final steps in the delivery process. This is an outstanding achievement and the Japan FACO team did a fantastic job from start to finish....."

"Japan’s F-35 final assembly and check-out facility, run by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Nagoya, is on track to hit peak production next year when the country’s stealth fighter production tops out at six aircraft per year.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is contracted to deliver four F-35C fighters by the end of 2018, but may be able to deliver one of next year’s aircraft early, bringing the total to five, said Greg Ulmer, Vice President and General Manager of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 programme at the Farnborough Airshow. “We just completed what we call company flight acceptance of the ninth Japan airplane,” he says. “And we’ve seen very strong performance from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries on the performance in the program.”

Local production of the aircraft’s engine [I DID NOT KNOW THIS] – the Pratt & Whitney F135 – by Japan’s IHI will hit peak production this year at six turbines per year, says Matthew Bromberg, president of Pratt & Whitney Military Engines. “They’ve produced three engines that will go to the Japanese Air Force,” he adds. “That facility will also be their depot. It will support not only the Japanese Air Force, but other regional requirements in the sustainment network.”

Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney emphasise that final assembly and check out (FACO) facilities in Japan and Italy do not differ from their core facilities in the US in performance and automation.

“Jet engines are entirely complex. There are 10,000 different parts, clearances that are finer than a strand of hair, finishes that are finer than a mirror. We spin at 10,000 revolutions per minute. We operate at 2,000° plus – so you can’t get anything wrong,” says Bromberg. “When we automate in one of our primary assembly facilities in Middletown, Connecticut or West Palm Beach, [Florida] we will automate in each one of the FACOs as well. We use identical processes to ensure identical performance.”

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan plans to buy at least 20 additional F-35A stealth fighters over the next six years, some or all of which it may purchase directly from Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) in the United States rather than assemble locally, three sources said............